My guitar teacher was a kindly old pensioner who brought music and cheer to a dirt-poor town in the late 1970s. If you didn't own a guitar, he would provide one for you. He would run down to Juarez and pick up several guitars as was needed. He did more for us than taught us music.
Now, those are the gems of the teaching world. See them rarely in all sorts of fields. More like a father/grand father than a teacher AND those are the ones you will learn the most from too.
I took lessons from Greg Howe for 3 months in late 1987. It was a rude awakening, because throughout high school I had been studying with a teacher who either could not detect my flaws or did not care enough to mention them. The one compliment this person gave me again and again was that he liked my musical ideas. He'd even go a little gaga over them, so my ability to come up with creative ideas became my identity. By the time I took lessons from Greg, I was four years deep into my self-delusions. I thought I was pretty darn special. I drove 45 minutes to Easton, Pa on a cold night in early October, more giddy than nervous. And I will say this: for all of Greg Howe's genius and virtuosity, he is a nice guy, and a comforting presence. I was not nervous during that first lesson. We did a jam over Far Beyond the Sun. He went first. Any person with their head on straight would have frozen. But not me. Nope. I was inspired! I was on my game! I played with total abandon, I thought I had nailed it! I would have no excuses to save me, nor would I need any. I finished my improv with the fanciest lick I could come up with on the spot. I looked over at the master, expecting the praise I had gotten so used to. You know where this is going. Greg said, "It's not so much the overall feel I didn't like, it's the ideas I thought were weak. And your left and right hand are out of synch. And you don't land on the downbeat enough." And then he demonstrated how I sounded and let me tell you, it is downright disturbing to watch a monster player like Howe imitate a rank amateur when that rank amateur happens to be yourself. He was nice about it, but at that moment I felt really betrayed by my first teacher. It was humbling to realize, especially in that context, that I had been lied to for 4 years.
Yup, a pretty familiar feeling. Not in guitar playing, that I just started last month, but in "People who want the best for you are terrible critics". But this was a nice story, I'm glad I read it.
I found that getting an instructor who can teach adult beginners makes a big difference. I was 40 when I started learning guitar and in the beginning, I was treated like a 12 year old. That's seriously annoying. When I got an instructor who treated me like an adult, it changed everything.
What I do is I ask potential students what three songs they most want to learn. I look at what chords, scales, and techniques the student will need to learn for those songs. I spend the first few weeks focusing on those areas (depending on the students' progress), and then start working on the building blocks of the actual song.
Thats a good approach. Ultimately its like going to the gym. You want to work on something specific. I would hate to learn how to play country when I want to sound like Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads or Van Halen.🎸
Yeah my teacher would so something similar, he taught me a scale and chords and chord progressions, then also taught me how to play iron man by Black Sabbath because I told him I was a big fan of them and Tony Iommi
i had a teacher like the whiplash guy. I learned so much and benefited a lot believe it or not. I always thought he was just teaching some bullshit songs and stuff but later realized he taught me everything i needed to benefit from music theory and things i could add to my style.
Same here. I was all Rock N Roll and the dude had me learning jazz lol shit was rough. And he was too, but ill always have what he taught me. Thanks for sharing dude
I feel like for a lot of youngsters this approach leads them to quit early - which isn't a bad thing necessarily if you want to "weed out the non serious ones" - but it either shows the perseverance and drive of skill/talent and/or abuse of power and desire.
Late comment but I believe when it comes to a teacher being harsh, its subjective. Some people might benefit more from a teacher that is really nice. Some people might benefit more from a harsh strict teacher. It depends on the student.
My guitar teacher that I had at school, and the one that sparked my passion for guitar, had a clock on the wall, but he took out the hands and wrote on it, "time to work" he was a really cool guy and always kept me wanting to learn guitar, maybe it was also that it was a class but it worked nonetheless!
I had a teacher that overly praised me, and I would get angry every time he did that. He would tell me to "improv a solo" and then stop me after I played a single note and he would write a solo and make me mime it, then say "you wrote that all by yourself. that's awesome!" I'm getting irritated just thinking about it. haha
I had a teacher for years who just gave me tabs, every week he'd just ask me what I wanted to learn, write out the tab, we'd fumble through it for a bit and that was that. He wouldn't even check how I was doing with the song I learned last week. Had been playing for years and I knew what a pentatonic scale was but had no idea what I was supposed to do with it, didn't know the notes on the fretboard, just really basic stuff I had never learned. Thing was that he was a cool guy and I was pretty young so I didn't know better. It just occured to me years later that I'd been with him a long time and I'd totally plataued. When I switched I actually got the guy who had taught my last teacher and started getting better pretty much immediately.
To the second point, I feel like it's useful to ask a student not what they want to learn, but what music they actually LIKE. That way, I use the music they like as a means to let the techniques and theory (things that are near-universal across genres) come in the form of music that they actually enjoy. I find that my students discover what kinds of music they gravitate towards that way and it inspires them creatively and I can use the music they like as a gateway to other styles that inspired the music they like so they can follow the trail and appreciate the history.
On the other side of this, I'm an decent guitarist and only play for the joy of it. I write songs and record them and when people hear me play, they like it. I get the occasional person who wants me to teach them. I'm reluctant because everyone I try to teach, never sticks to it. I start out with basic, open chords and show them how important it is to work on making sure all of the notes ring out in the chords. If they return, I'll show them some basic progressions and how to move from one chord to the next and then I never see them again. I'm super patient because I don't want them to fear it and I'm not charging them any money and just want them to learn how great music is but, they just don't want to commit.
another approach to try may be something like simple one string melodies. it may be that the chords are a bit daunting to a beginner, but if they can play a few 'tunes' even if they are on a single string, it may be just what they need to keep them interested and coming back for more?
I've taught a few people. They see me play and ask me to teach them. I try to show them a couple songs they want to learn, the C major scale in the first 3 frets, and position 1 of the pentatonic scale. Most people give up within a couple weeks. Had two stick with it a while, with one becoming very accomplished. I think most people give up early on, they don't really want it. They see us play and think " If he shows me, I'll be able to instantly do it." Then they give it a try and get a rude awakening, that it hurts and will take months to get it happening. It's a normal occurrence. Most folks won't dedicate time and effort to anything worthwhile.
Another interesting thing to look at is how the music store “runs” their lesson program if you are the student or the teacher. I taught at a store where the owner would start flashing the lights, turning off the power, and knocking on the door when the 1/2 hour was over. As a jazz student, I had a teacher who played the whole time- it was never my turn- didn’t stay long
My only guitar teacher was a classmate who showed me how to play E, A and D. From there it was magazines and listening to a given recording over and over again. The internet is such a blessing for young and old guitar players. The same can be said for those of you who share your knowledge.
My initial guitar teacher kept me in Scales & Exercises forever. I had an hour long lesson, and he’d dedicate the last 10 minutes to a song, & made me play rhythm while he played lead. But I wanted to learn lead. I think I was just a warmup to his Saturday night gigs. Ugh!
I am blessed with a fabulous teacher named Jerry Schillinger, a master of jazz chord melody playing. He teaches in the most patient and thorough fashion. I have played for forty years, so the lessons are advanced and the techniques he teaches are quite difficult to master. He is the best teacher ever imho
been teaching for a few months, still with my first student, thought i'd give my take-away from this 1. i try hard to not do this, especially when i'm teaching online for most of my lessons. 2. my student barely knew anything about guitar, so i taught him how to play, and then i asked him about a few songs. then i started giving him some songs that i liked that were similar to the few songs he'd heard, and i told him to choose which one to learn. still working on this tho, i fall into it every now and then. 3. it's very tempting lol, but i desperately try not to. if i fall into it, i cut it before 10 seconds. 4. this one is especially difficult for me. i try hard to cover the details. i try very hard to NOT say good enough, i push my student. 5. i really hope he doesn't see me like that, because i try not to be. definitely something to keep in mind, especially if i'm in a bad mood one day for no reason. 6. i praise where praise is worthy. if he tries a solo and doesn't get it, i say "ok, could be better, let's work on these parts that you didn't get." again, i do try pushing my student. 7. good to keep in mind. i had that mentality at one point, but watching enough videos changed my mind on that. 8. will make note of this for the future. great video, i've learned a lot from that, thanks!
How about having the members write in and give examples of what they like in a guitar teacher ( positive attributes ) so we have the Yin and yang of guitar teaching philosophy covered
Very frue about glossing over the details but hard for a beginner to know because they don't know what details are being glossed over. Okay you covered this after. Well done.
Me to bass teacher: I want to play this fast metal song with mostly 16th notes, tempo changes, and slap on a 5 string bass. Teacher: okay you’ll get there but how about you play the same whole note at 40 bpm first. 😔🤔Well played, Mr. Bass Teacher
I quit formal lessons because the guitar teacher kept insulting me. He was an excellent guitarist, but he was a jazz guitarist, and was very open about the fact that he considered the metal, grunge, and punk that I was into and wanted to learn as "noise for stupid people" and referred to any rock after the mid 70's as "commie drug music." He did encourage me to bring in songs I wanted to learn, but if anything wasn't in standard tuning, he would make fun of me and complain about having to detune his guitar "like a druggie." I also liked the show M*A*S*H, and wanted to learn the theme for it. He showed me the basic chords and then said, "If you were good, you could do this," and started playing a combo of the gutiar and vocal line. It sounded great but when I asked him to show me some of that part, he openly told me, "you're not good enough." The final straw was when I showed him a song that I wrote. First he told me that I should not try to write music until I was better but, "the kind of music you listen to, I guess it doesn't matter." He then accused me of "looking things up that we hadn't gotten to yet," and of ripping off the chord progression (Am/C/Em/Dsus2) because "you're not smart enough to stay in key otherwise." He then told me that he wouldn't teach me anymore unless I promised not write music until "we had done three years of lessons." I quit the lessons, and kept writing music.
+1 i have had a few of these, one used a kitchen timer. and halfway through teaching a riff (rrrrrrrrrring!)"LESSON OVER" go home - --- NEXT STUDENT! some times a concept takes a little longer to convey the content of the lesson and the instructor has to be aware of this. and this is true for every teacher in every subject!!
Woow.. How rude... Mine had a discotheque out of work (and a bar on the next floor) so he used the space for teaching and he would say 'practice this chord i'll be back' and he would go to the bar to work, or he would be fixing something upstairs and then comes back and says good work 😂 and storms off again... I was a beginner so any kind of teacher is good for me... But i changed him after few weeks.. 😁
Another great video Mike as always, I have a great teacher. He has played with many people that are in the country hall of fame. He is still a studio musician in Nashville and he still plays with 3 local bands. I went and saw him at many of his gigs and he is awesome and not only plays guitar he can play the pedal steal and just about everything that has strings. I trained a pedal steal guitar player to be a cop like 20 years ago and I just found him on face book. I told him that I started lessons on guitar and told him who my teacher was and he knew him from Nashville. The best thing about him is that you have to be the devil to not like him and he is very humble. I guess I got one thing right in the past 3 years. I lived in MN from 2005 to 2008 would of loved to had you as a teacher.
Great comment, Wayne. Since I retired to tropical Idaho (the lake country in the north that reminds me of MN), I drove out to Stillwater, MN for my niece's wedding in 2014, northern WI and spent several days with my cohort fish biologist friend at Brainerd/Baxter. We rode our bikes on the trail between a couple towns one afternoon, had lunch at a place where he played with their band, Hans Blix and the Weapons Inspectors. In Alaska during the 1980s, we seemed to have our hands (sometimes more) immersed in cold water every day, and at 65 now, I recall our shared comments on whether that would lead to arthritis in our fingers later. It's taking a while, but chords start sounding better after a time. Happy to be here!
It's amazing how music and martial arts run such close parallels. So many musicians I've worked with in the past are also into the martial arts as much as I am. I think your videos excellent!! Your students are so fortunate to have you as an instructor. Much respect to you. 😀
My first in-person teacher insisted on me learning styles I hated, and reading music. Instead of loving the instrument and playing songs or even riffs I loved, I was stuck learning country love songs an how to read the Hal Leonard book. Nearly quit guitar forever. Thank god I left and found someone more effective.
I know a mother who hauled her kid to guitar lessons for YEARS, and, 1. The lessons were given with both the child, and the grown-man teacher siting on the teacher's bed, and 2. The lessons for YEARS consisted of only chord positions, NEVER ONCE actually applying a pick to actually PLAY A SINGLE chord! I still can't believe it.
One thing I noticed about my teacher was we shared internet in the same music (before he passed away) I believe that is how he became my best friend in the end. I had so much respect for him knowing he was a former US Marine with an “honorable discharge” (heart condition) I was devastated to find him sitting on the couch, cold to the touch. He was gone. Find out he stopped taking his heart meds and didn’t tell anyone. RIP Mike Vohar II
I always had the feeling my former teacher just teached me because he needed someone to play along with. It felt like: "Learn this thing. Great, you learnd this thing and now I'm going to play along for the rest of the hour." I just learned songs and that's it. When it came to musical theory his response was something like: "There is this other teacher in our group. He'll teach you but you have to come here on another day of the week." At least those theory lessons were included in the fee.
I found a teacher that was a university music graduate. If you dont take class's you have difficulty knowing how to structure a class. That doesnt mean that taking lessons is a prerequisite to teach. It just gives that insight.
I got my first teacher after a year of being self taught and by the time I got him I had played some gigs at our school and played longer concerts doing some alt rock songs and some other stuff. He was really good and primarily played some kind of jazz fusion. I’m not the kind of punk guitarist who is like I don’t need theory I actively learn it. But I remember one of the conversations we had about the songwriting with some of my favorite bands. We talked about sound garden (he was also a fan) and I showed him Jesus Christ pose he hadn’t listened to that song. but he said that with most of those bands from the alt scene that so long as the vocalist is good the rest of them don’t matter. So he has completely discredited the talent of the other members of the band and said what they played did not matter cause Chris (rip) was such an amazing vocalist. Never have I lost respect for someone so quickly. I had booked him for like 10 lessons and went to 4 or 5 lessons because I slowly began to tell that this was a side gig for him in between doing the odd gig and sound engineering. Some of my other friends even guys who were way better than me ditched the lessons and the money we had spent on the guy.
I DO THAT! Not completely, but I sit my students on the drumset and teach them backbeats in a very quick and superficial way, in order they understand the mechanics of rhythm and next I encourage them to do the same on the 6 strings while I sit at the drum set and we try to play together. Sometimes it works well.
Like a week ago I realized my guitar teacher is glossing over the details and not breaking stuff down to me, yk, like, he’d be like „2nd barre moll chord at 7th fret” and expect me to play it perfectly when I didn’t even know how to play a barre chord
Why am I here I'm self taught. Okay I'll be honest, I never got a teacher because I thought they would said to me that I suck and you should play what I like better instead of your stuff. I'm not paying someone to tell me that
My first teacher never taught me anything and asked me what I wanted to learn so he did this for a few months and I just left him. My second teacher never wanted to teach me so he got his daughter to teach me and I didn't enprove at all and my third teacher moved away after 4 or 5 months. So I decided to teach myself and it is working really well.
Maybe I am the only student looking at this positively different. When I was a teenager, my first music teacher kept choosing songs for me to learn without my input. Without wanting to know my favorite genre in music I wanted to learn. So, when I found a different music teacher for other reasons outside music, I felt liberated. Music freedom because they were not only letting me choose the song, they made it where the song could be my own. So from my experience, there’s nothing wrong by it. But that’s just me.
Out of 3 teachers I had, they were all terrible for checking the time constantly, walking around looking for extra cables and tuners and showing off with ah here's another blues riff to discourage you by saying you'll never be able to play it as well as me 🤪
I hate teachers who ask what do you wanna learn. I had one like that but they did ask about specific song but that was that all the time. I didn't hate it back then but now I'm like I learnt nothing cause I always wanted to learn songs by the same band (so half my bad but my teacher should've taught me other songs) the band's guitar stuff was super simple, e.g. power chords. I didn't even learn how to play octaves or harmonics so I have had to teach myself.
my first guitar teacher (2nd grade) did most of these things well. We went through the method book most of the time but he would ask me what i wanted to learn. He taught all of pink floyd’s money to a 4th grader.
Hey dude, I just recently started teaching and this is actually really helpful on both sides. I'm definitely guilty of the "what do want to learn today" and subconscious clock-watching.
The point about asking “What do you want to learn” reminds me of my education classes in college. In general, children feel insecure when parents aren’t in charge and the same dynamic applies to students and teachers. I’m normally a passive person so I have to watch out for that when I’m in a position of responsibility.
Ditch the instructor and teach yourself with RUclips videos and tabs (or by ear if you want to be really good, you seem to have great potential). Play what you want instead of paying for lessons YOU don’t need. Most of what you learn on guitar at any level can be self taught extremely easy these days thanks to the internet. Just search for what you want to learn. Instant free lessons. Now you have more money gear.
The most common reason I hear is "he played too much" and to a lesser extent "he gave me his life story every week" which I find funny because I know a ton of guitarists who will talk your ear off about all these towns they've played and who they've met.
I had a guitar teacher that would ask if theres a song i wanted to learn and when i brought it to him he would just say he doesnt know what the guitar is doing in that song and instead teach me something i didn't want to learn
I have a classical guitar who is very rigid and thinks everybody else is wrong apart from him. I was under Abrsm. I wanted to do Abrsm's fingering because that is what worked best for me, but he wouldn't let me do it. I practiced and practiced his method, even though I was uncomfortable with it and finally said about the exam and he told me I wasn't ready. Yet I kept up with him the whole way, done his fingering and nearly burst into tears throwing the guitar in the gutter. Everybody says I should leave him, but Abrsm guitar teachers are very few and far between. I then got sick of going over the same ground all the time and got more enjoyment learning from books than his lessons. He disses everything ABRSM does including other guitarists who are musically sound with great technique, yet only he is the best. He re arranges all the exam board's fingering which I prefer to his own method. Today he showed me a piece arranged by Sergovia, then someone else and then he arranged from both copies his fingering and wanted me to memorize his! I am really unhappy, the lessons have been a slog and have not even been able to share my love of music with him even. People tell me he's a bully like that guy in Whiplash and tell me for my own sanity I need to get out and go with someone else. I need advice and serious help, what should I do? ="" ( Daniel
Great video, I'd add: 9. Being influenced by management to purchase curriculum, instruments, exams. (Just imagine the motivation lost struggling to pass a children's exam on a mediocre overpriced instrument at age 30, let alone the humiliation of pressured to perform a children's piece at that age.) 10. A teacher that is obviously overworked with too many students, projects to have any attention for you. 11. Someone that is so different from you, that the difference isn't a learning experience, but a struggle in communication and conflict of goals. 12. A teacher looking for a trophy to impress his/her colleagues and embellish their resume. (you mentioned a similar thing in Whiplash, but the difference here is recognizing the prowl for a trophy in character as a minus).
I left guitar teachers after 3/4 years of lessons (been playing almost 10 years now). I was kinda blessed to have a great guitar teacher, always hated when the lesson was over. He took me through the guitar grade books for most of it but sometimes he asked me if I want to do the book or something more fun. He always came up with suggestions as to what he thinks I should attempt and introduced me to new techniques/styles all the time. Technically he wasn't the best guitar player like he couldn't sweep pick, he couldn't shred that well (only mentioning this coz that's the type of stuff I like), he broke his pinky and it hindered his playing a lot but he was still so good at keeping me interested and helping me with basic/intermediate level stuff
RUclips has changed guitar pedagogy forever! Who needs one teacher when you can have 50... I’ll never forget finding your channel about strumming with the egg shaker and it was a huge breakthrough for me. My previous teacher told me “he just always had rhythm in his arm” but never bothered explained it further (glossing over details).
Great video! I’m a session guitarist and absolutely love teaching. I’m inspired by learning and progressing, and still take lessons myself occasionally which benefits all aspects of my career.
Great tips man, thanks. Whenever anyone has asked me to teach them lessons I've always shied away from it because the doubt starts from 'what should I teach first?'..or 'maybe I cant play what they want to learn?'..this is invaluable stuff for people like me.
My guitar teachers always turned me away from playing bass when deep down i felt like a bass player. Choosing between the two is still a hard choice i have to make
My first teacher’s approach was to ask me what songs I wanted to learn. Then I got a demo on how to play with a little technique but very little explanation. I only lasted 3 months.
yeah same here, and for me i had to sit there through most of my lessons that my mom paid to watch him tab out the song by ear and write it out sloppily with pencil on my notebook, no theory details at all, just tab. I took lessons from this guy for 1 whole year when i was about 14. He did teach me how to do pinch harmonics and eddie van halen basic tapping, so i guess it wasn't terrible but the songs i learned i don't even care about anymore, so learning how to play a full song is a waste of time to me in general now, if it's just for the sake of saying you can play it from the tab, but not know any theory of what it is, then that's not really learning much that is valuable.
I'm only beginning my journey as a guitar player, but I do have thousands of hours of instructional design and "behind the podium" instructional work. One thing I can add is that teaching is a skill that's completely separate from the subject being presented. The most amazing guitar player on the planet might be completely incapable of actually teaching in a coherent and productive way while an intermediate player who has very solid fundamental knowledge and skills combined with the ability to organize, adapt, and present that knowledge to an individual student effectively might be the ideal teacher to get you moving in the right direction.
In my small town, I took one lesson once (that’s it). The instructor did at least five of these in one half hour. He also wasted about five minutes tuning. Plus the kid before me was slow packing up to leave and the kid behind me was peeking in the window at 20 minutes into our 30 minutes, so it wasn’t a concentrated half hour. All he gave me was chords for House Of The Rising Sun. I never went back because that was money I didn’t want to spend that way. I mostly use the internet now.
My first guitar teacher (1980) was kind of mean. Did not realize it then though. Not entirely. I wanted to learn an easy R.E.O. song. he rolled his eyes back and said they were nothig more than a grade school dance band or something like that. He was always mad at something. He had just gone to see The Who and complained about Pete's windmill was every ten seconds and ruined the experience. One time I had trouble doing a lay down with my middle finger and he exclaimed "well, what's the point then" lol. The music store closed up finally and I moved on.
I went to one guitar lesson in 1997. The dude was a total douchebag. He literally smoked weed the entire time. After that I went home sounded things out and copied off of live concerts on MTV.
I had a drum teacher online when I first started who always wanted me to work on paradiddles and different ways of doing it. I never played a single song and I never learned anything
I told my guitar teacher I wanted to learn Breaking Benjamin. Instead he made me learn chords and classic rock songs. I quit after a few months. When I picked it up the second time, I learned from RUclips and since then I've loved it!
36 yrs old, been teaching Guitar for 17 years now. Well, to make it short: I hate it! I am definitely someone who you could describe as a failed Musician. I got around 60 students at the Moment and 90% of the time it is absolutely agonizing and makes me hate my life.
..... Same here, bro. Well, I had a couple nice exeptions. A 17 year old bassist who played so good. Things like Stevie Wonder "Sir Duke" with such a good taste. Other young guy who played trombone, no idea from bass, one year later we learnt together Jaco Pastorius licks on my fretless bass. Another one that was a catastrophe but I had 3 years patience and he played in a very energetic Gary Moore/Slash style. Maybe 2 or 3 more, the rest are basket cases.
Totally agree about my teacher offering to teach just to show off their skills to boost his ego as if he was deprived given the chance to perform on stage! He never praises, never lets me up making me feel small correcting my playing and embarrasses me in front of others. Sometimes you wonder how can they come from the same grace based church.
I have a teacher at school who tells me my that high strings were ringing and that I shouldn't have my fingers out when holding a guitar pick. My guitar teacher now who is a very good teacher got me over ringing strings months before in a about 10 minutes and I didn't have to change the way I hold my hand when picking.
Do you feel that telling a student that something is good when it isn't necessarily the best is problematic? This is in response to your point about how telling a student that something is good enough can be problematic. I can often think of a few things that would make a particular passage in the music that we are working on better, but I believe it is more beneficial to keep moving so that they get a good variety of material in order to keep their interest. What are your thoughts on this? (I teach woodwinds by the way haha)
my guitar teacher taught me songs, but I never heard those songs, didnt know the timing, didnt know anything but the chords or tabs. we also repeated the same thing for almost a year, That was also the reason that I quit.
My first guitar teacher used to hit me whenever I did something wrong, that was when I was ten. Didn't really inspire me to play classical guitar, I only got serious when I was 35.
I stopped listening to one teacher online because he didn't give Elvis due credit for a song that he did that was later redone by queen. I don't want any music instructor that don't give Elvis the respect he so deserves as a pioneer in rock and roll. There is another teacher online I can't stand. He has video titles like "This is why you suck at guitar" or "this is why your cords suck". I don't ant to learn from any one who uses that kind of negativity to teach. I just want to tell him... this is why your nose is bleeding (because my fist came in contact with it). I suck because I am new. No other reason... because I am a beginner. It's not video gaming where you make fun of noobs. Making fun of beginners is not right.
This last tip that says about the "obligation" of teachers doing other stuff is not 100% accurate because there are thousands of reasons why teachers would be just teaching. It doesn't mean necessarily that a teacher is not good or is giving a bad example.
I teach acting and there are so many parallels between acting and music or teaching music and teaching acting. There's a lot of similar issues like for example teachers that want to show off rather than just stay focused on the student and aim for simplicity in the lessons. The toughest thing to teach an actor is the art of simplicity, especially untrained actors who tend to overthink everything. A teacher who deliberately makes it seem more complex than it needs to be definitely isn't helping and in fact can cripple the student. My own acting teachers are tough on me but not what I'd call "toxic teachers" like in the movie Whiplash. They're just always pushing me to do better, no matter how good you get there's ALWAYS room for improvement. But there is one teacher (out of several) that I refuse to train with because she's rude, disrespectful and even dishonest with her students. I just don't like her as a person and don't trust her as a teacher and an acting teacher is like god to the students, you don't even know if you're doing it right or wrong until the teacher tells you and that requires a lot of trust. Those who teach can do but the main reason I love teaching is because it makes me a better student. If you really want to get good or better at something teach it. If you want to improve your grasp of ANY subject, try explaining that subject; using simple language to a person who knows nothing of the subject. I guess it's kind of like martial arts in that way also, once you reach a certain level you teach the lower levels because it helps you strengthen the strong foundation you already have. Teaching strengthens my foundation for performing and performing strengthens my foundation for teaching. They just go together naturally, like yin and yang. Students understand if I have to cancel a class because I'm on set that day and I EXPECT them to miss a few classes because they're also doing the work and will occasionally be on set. My own teacher had to have a sub come in because she was directing a movie. And her teacher had to stop teaching because he had been cast in "Jurassic Park".
Asking my students what they want to learn is my biggest flaw thanks for pointing it out because I totally thought I was helping students not hurting them
Don't talk about how everything used to be so great when you were younger. You lose your students almost right away. Sharing exciting things of the past is great, but don't kill your students' excitement about today.
My guitar teacher was a kindly old pensioner who brought music and cheer to a dirt-poor town in the late 1970s. If you didn't own a guitar, he would provide one for you. He would run down to Juarez and pick up several guitars as was needed. He did more for us than taught us music.
Now, those are the gems of the teaching world. See them rarely in all sorts of fields. More like a father/grand father than a teacher AND those are the ones you will learn the most from too.
That’s an awesome story!
This is the kind of person I want to be.
Sounds like he was very dedicated
He sounds like a hero to me. What was his name?
I'm gonna be a guitar teacher after a few more months. I'm watching this to save me the embarrasment and losing students.
Good luck. Better teach them some Sepultura tunes \m/
Keep us updated!
first lesson better be beneath the remains :)
I hope that you don't turn out to be a glorified babysitter like a lot of guitar teachers
haven't changed your name in 9 years, huh?
The closest thing that i have to a guitar teacher is your channel
How is your playing level?
Same bro
Me 3, let's hook up FaceTime and practice together. My name is Wayneo,,,
SAME
X2
"Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym." Jack Black
Ah, a fellow Tenacious D fan
And those that cat teach gym become president
I took lessons from Greg Howe for 3 months in late 1987. It was a rude awakening, because throughout high school I had been studying with a teacher who either could not detect my flaws or did not care enough to mention them. The one compliment this person gave me again and again was that he liked my musical ideas. He'd even go a little gaga over them, so my ability to come up with creative ideas became my identity.
By the time I took lessons from Greg, I was four years deep into my self-delusions. I thought I was pretty darn special. I drove 45 minutes to Easton, Pa on a cold night in early October, more giddy than nervous. And I will say this: for all of Greg Howe's genius and virtuosity, he is a nice guy, and a comforting presence. I was not nervous during that first lesson. We did a jam over Far Beyond the Sun. He went first. Any person with their head on straight would have frozen. But not me. Nope. I was inspired! I was on my game! I played with total abandon, I thought I had nailed it! I would have no excuses to save me, nor would I need any. I finished my improv with the fanciest lick I could come up with on the spot. I looked over at the master, expecting the praise I had gotten so used to. You know where this is going. Greg said, "It's not so much the overall feel I didn't like, it's the ideas I thought were weak. And your left and right hand are out of synch. And you don't land on the downbeat enough." And then he demonstrated how I sounded and let me tell you, it is downright disturbing to watch a monster player like Howe imitate a rank amateur when that rank amateur happens to be yourself. He was nice about it, but at that moment I felt really betrayed by my first teacher. It was humbling to realize, especially in that context, that I had been lied to for 4 years.
Yup, a pretty familiar feeling. Not in guitar playing, that I just started last month, but in "People who want the best for you are terrible critics". But this was a nice story, I'm glad I read it.
Wow, that's harsh man..did Mr. Howe set you in the right direction?
Sounds like he gave you great instruction.
I found that getting an instructor who can teach adult beginners makes a big difference. I was 40 when I started learning guitar and in the beginning, I was treated like a 12 year old. That's seriously annoying. When I got an instructor who treated me like an adult, it changed everything.
Awww poor baby! He didn't give you a widdle pacifier for your tears for playing "Horse with No Name?" Awwww
@ParkourRhett bruh what the hell is your problem lol 😂💀
So... I should see my guitar teacher's daily tradition of throwing a chair at my head while playing out of tempo as a warning sign?
Nice teacher you have! If that's a warning, I wonder what the full-scale reaction would be. 🤣
My teacher speaks in a weird swedish accent and when I make mistakes he pours a bucket of paint on me
A warning sign, if you don't have the will. Motivation, if you're made for greatness.
next teacher I have who doesn't bring a guitar and borrows mine gives me 2 free lessons!
Nah, I did that a lot. haha
What I do is I ask potential students what three songs they most want to learn. I look at what chords, scales, and techniques the student will need to learn for those songs. I spend the first few weeks focusing on those areas (depending on the students' progress), and then start working on the building blocks of the actual song.
Thats a good approach. Ultimately its like going to the gym. You want to work on something specific. I would hate to learn how to play country when I want to sound like Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads or Van Halen.🎸
Yeah my teacher would so something similar, he taught me a scale and chords and chord progressions, then also taught me how to play iron man by Black Sabbath because I told him I was a big fan of them and Tony Iommi
i had a teacher like the whiplash guy. I learned so much and benefited a lot believe it or not. I always thought he was just teaching some bullshit songs and stuff but later realized he taught me everything i needed to benefit from music theory and things i could add to my style.
Same here. I was all Rock N Roll and the dude had me learning jazz lol shit was rough. And he was too, but ill always have what he taught me. Thanks for sharing dude
I feel like for a lot of youngsters this approach leads them to quit early - which isn't a bad thing necessarily if you want to "weed out the non serious ones" - but it either shows the perseverance and drive of skill/talent and/or abuse of power and desire.
Late comment but I believe when it comes to a teacher being harsh, its subjective. Some people might benefit more from a teacher that is really nice. Some people might benefit more from a harsh strict teacher. It depends on the student.
My guitar teacher that I had at school, and the one that sparked my passion for guitar, had a clock on the wall, but he took out the hands and wrote on it, "time to work" he was a really cool guy and always kept me wanting to learn guitar, maybe it was also that it was a class but it worked nonetheless!
"Time to Work!! Awesome!!!🎸
I had a teacher that overly praised me, and I would get angry every time he did that. He would tell me to "improv a solo" and then stop me after I played a single note and he would write a solo and make me mime it, then say "you wrote that all by yourself. that's awesome!" I'm getting irritated just thinking about it. haha
I had a teacher for years who just gave me tabs, every week he'd just ask me what I wanted to learn, write out the tab, we'd fumble through it for a bit and that was that. He wouldn't even check how I was doing with the song I learned last week. Had been playing for years and I knew what a pentatonic scale was but had no idea what I was supposed to do with it, didn't know the notes on the fretboard, just really basic stuff I had never learned. Thing was that he was a cool guy and I was pretty young so I didn't know better. It just occured to me years later that I'd been with him a long time and I'd totally plataued. When I switched I actually got the guy who had taught my last teacher and started getting better pretty much immediately.
1 sign you have the GREAT guitar teacher: you're subscribed to The-Art-of-Guitar
To the second point, I feel like it's useful to ask a student not what they want to learn, but what music they actually LIKE. That way, I use the music they like as a means to let the techniques and theory (things that are near-universal across genres) come in the form of music that they actually enjoy. I find that my students discover what kinds of music they gravitate towards that way and it inspires them creatively and I can use the music they like as a gateway to other styles that inspired the music they like so they can follow the trail and appreciate the history.
On the other side of this, I'm an decent guitarist and only play for the joy of it. I write songs and record them and when people hear me play, they like it. I get the occasional person who wants me to teach them. I'm reluctant because everyone I try to teach, never sticks to it. I start out with basic, open chords and show them how important it is to work on making sure all of the notes ring out in the chords. If they return, I'll show them some basic progressions and how to move from one chord to the next and then I never see them again. I'm super patient because I don't want them to fear it and I'm not charging them any money and just want them to learn how great music is but, they just don't want to commit.
I take a class with you any day. 🎸
another approach to try may be something like simple one string melodies. it may be that the chords are a bit daunting to a beginner, but if they can play a few 'tunes' even if they are on a single string, it may be just what they need to keep them interested and coming back for more?
I've taught a few people. They see me play and ask me to teach them. I try to show them a couple songs they want to learn, the C major scale in the first 3 frets, and position 1 of the pentatonic scale. Most people give up within a couple weeks. Had two stick with it a while, with one becoming very accomplished. I think most people give up early on, they don't really want it. They see us play and think " If he shows me, I'll be able to instantly do it." Then they give it a try and get a rude awakening, that it hurts and will take months to get it happening.
It's a normal occurrence. Most folks won't dedicate time and effort to anything worthwhile.
Another interesting thing to look at is how the music store “runs” their lesson program if you are the student or the teacher. I taught at a store where the owner would start flashing the lights, turning off the power, and knocking on the door when the 1/2 hour was over. As a jazz student, I had a teacher who played the whole time- it was never my turn- didn’t stay long
I cant help but think of that guitar as a red velvet cake
My only guitar teacher was a classmate who showed me how to play E, A and D. From there it was magazines and listening to a given recording over and over again. The internet is such a blessing for young and old guitar players. The same can be said for those of you who share your knowledge.
My initial guitar teacher kept me in Scales & Exercises forever. I had an hour long lesson, and he’d dedicate the last 10 minutes to a song, & made me play rhythm while he played lead. But I wanted to learn lead. I think I was just a warmup to his Saturday night gigs. Ugh!
I am blessed with a fabulous teacher named Jerry Schillinger, a master of jazz chord melody playing. He teaches in the most patient and thorough fashion. I have played for forty years, so the lessons are advanced and the techniques he teaches are quite difficult to master. He is the best teacher ever imho
been teaching for a few months, still with my first student, thought i'd give my take-away from this
1. i try hard to not do this, especially when i'm teaching online for most of my lessons.
2. my student barely knew anything about guitar, so i taught him how to play, and then i asked him about a few songs. then i started giving him some songs that i liked that were similar to the few songs he'd heard, and i told him to choose which one to learn. still working on this tho, i fall into it every now and then.
3. it's very tempting lol, but i desperately try not to. if i fall into it, i cut it before 10 seconds.
4. this one is especially difficult for me. i try hard to cover the details. i try very hard to NOT say good enough, i push my student.
5. i really hope he doesn't see me like that, because i try not to be. definitely something to keep in mind, especially if i'm in a bad mood one day for no reason.
6. i praise where praise is worthy. if he tries a solo and doesn't get it, i say "ok, could be better, let's work on these parts that you didn't get." again, i do try pushing my student.
7. good to keep in mind. i had that mentality at one point, but watching enough videos changed my mind on that.
8. will make note of this for the future.
great video, i've learned a lot from that, thanks!
As a teacher I really do appreciate the content of your video. Mandatory watch for instructors!
How about having the members write in and give examples of what they like in a guitar teacher ( positive attributes ) so we have the Yin and yang of guitar teaching philosophy covered
Very frue about glossing over the details but hard for a beginner to know because they don't know what details are being glossed over. Okay you covered this after. Well done.
Me to bass teacher: I want to play this fast metal song with mostly 16th notes, tempo changes, and slap on a 5 string bass.
Teacher: okay you’ll get there but how about you play the same whole note at 40 bpm first.
😔🤔Well played, Mr. Bass Teacher
I quit formal lessons because the guitar teacher kept insulting me. He was an excellent guitarist, but he was a jazz guitarist, and was very open about the fact that he considered the metal, grunge, and punk that I was into and wanted to learn as "noise for stupid people" and referred to any rock after the mid 70's as "commie drug music." He did encourage me to bring in songs I wanted to learn, but if anything wasn't in standard tuning, he would make fun of me and complain about having to detune his guitar "like a druggie." I also liked the show M*A*S*H, and wanted to learn the theme for it. He showed me the basic chords and then said, "If you were good, you could do this," and started playing a combo of the gutiar and vocal line. It sounded great but when I asked him to show me some of that part, he openly told me, "you're not good enough."
The final straw was when I showed him a song that I wrote. First he told me that I should not try to write music until I was better but, "the kind of music you listen to, I guess it doesn't matter." He then accused me of "looking things up that we hadn't gotten to yet," and of ripping off the chord progression (Am/C/Em/Dsus2) because "you're not smart enough to stay in key otherwise." He then told me that he wouldn't teach me anymore unless I promised not write music until "we had done three years of lessons."
I quit the lessons, and kept writing music.
shoulda sold him out to a black nash org, he may call himself a "jazzer", but in reality, he was disgracing the whole shebang
Changed my first teacher because of reason 1 🤣
+1 i have had a few of these, one used a kitchen timer. and halfway through teaching a riff (rrrrrrrrrring!)"LESSON OVER" go home - --- NEXT STUDENT!
some times a concept takes a little longer to convey the content of the lesson and the instructor has to be aware of this. and this is true for every teacher in every subject!!
Woow.. How rude... Mine had a discotheque out of work (and a bar on the next floor) so he used the space for teaching and he would say 'practice this chord i'll be back' and he would go to the bar to work, or he would be fixing something upstairs and then comes back and says good work 😂 and storms off again... I was a beginner so any kind of teacher is good for me... But i changed him after few weeks.. 😁
@Sasha Zezov thats just peak wtf, how is he allowed to do this lol
Another great video Mike as always, I have a great teacher. He has played with many people that are in the country hall of fame. He is still a studio musician in Nashville and he still plays with 3 local bands. I went and saw him at many of his gigs and he is awesome and not only plays guitar he can play the pedal steal and just about everything that has strings. I trained a pedal steal guitar player to be a cop like 20 years ago and I just found him on face book. I told him that I started lessons on guitar and told him who my teacher was and he knew him from Nashville. The best thing about him is that you have to be the devil to not like him and he is very humble. I guess I got one thing right in the past 3 years. I lived in MN from 2005 to 2008 would of loved to had you as a teacher.
Great comment, Wayne. Since I retired to tropical Idaho (the lake country in the north that reminds me of MN), I drove out to Stillwater, MN for my niece's wedding in 2014, northern WI and spent several days with my cohort fish biologist friend at Brainerd/Baxter. We rode our bikes on the trail between a couple towns one afternoon, had lunch at a place where he played with their band, Hans Blix and the Weapons Inspectors. In Alaska during the 1980s, we seemed to have our hands (sometimes more) immersed in cold water every day, and at 65 now, I recall our shared comments on whether that would lead to arthritis in our fingers later. It's taking a while, but chords start sounding better after a time. Happy to be here!
@@charlesbranch4120 I did some networking work in still water for about a year a beautiful place.
It's amazing how music and martial arts run such close parallels. So many musicians I've worked with in the past are also into the martial arts as much as I am.
I think your videos excellent!! Your students are so fortunate to have you as an instructor. Much respect to you. 😀
My first in-person teacher insisted on me learning styles I hated, and reading music. Instead of loving the instrument and playing songs or even riffs I loved, I was stuck learning country love songs an how to read the Hal Leonard book. Nearly quit guitar forever. Thank god I left and found someone more effective.
I know a mother who hauled her kid to guitar lessons for YEARS, and, 1. The lessons were given with both the child, and the grown-man teacher siting on the teacher's bed, and 2. The lessons for YEARS consisted of only chord positions, NEVER ONCE actually applying a pick to actually PLAY A SINGLE chord! I still can't believe it.
LOL, showing of infront of your students and then just say : Now practice! and going away for a smoke. Thats the ultimate bad teacher then i guess
One thing I noticed about my teacher was we shared internet in the same music (before he passed away) I believe that is how he became my best friend in the end. I had so much respect for him knowing he was a former US Marine with an “honorable discharge” (heart condition) I was devastated to find him sitting on the couch, cold to the touch. He was gone. Find out he stopped taking his heart meds and didn’t tell anyone. RIP Mike Vohar II
I'm so sorry you had to find him like that😣
This was very helpful man :) Thanks for the tips. I found myself in #2 .
Happy to improve and become the best version of myself! You're inspiring!
I always had the feeling my former teacher just teached me because he needed someone to play along with. It felt like: "Learn this thing. Great, you learnd this thing and now I'm going to play along for the rest of the hour." I just learned songs and that's it. When it came to musical theory his response was something like: "There is this other teacher in our group. He'll teach you but you have to come here on another day of the week." At least those theory lessons were included in the fee.
I found a teacher that was a university music graduate. If you dont take class's you have difficulty knowing how to structure a class. That doesnt mean that taking lessons is a prerequisite to teach. It just gives that insight.
I got my first teacher after a year of being self taught and by the time I got him I had played some gigs at our school and played longer concerts doing some alt rock songs and some other stuff. He was really good and primarily played some kind of jazz fusion.
I’m not the kind of punk guitarist who is like I don’t need theory I actively learn it. But I remember one of the conversations we had about the songwriting with some of my favorite bands. We talked about sound garden (he was also a fan) and I showed him Jesus Christ pose he hadn’t listened to that song. but he said that with most of those bands from the alt scene that so long as the vocalist is good the rest of them don’t matter. So he has completely discredited the talent of the other members of the band and said what they played did not matter cause Chris (rip) was such an amazing vocalist. Never have I lost respect for someone so quickly.
I had booked him for like 10 lessons and went to 4 or 5 lessons because I slowly began to tell that this was a side gig for him in between doing the odd gig and sound engineering. Some of my other friends even guys who were way better than me ditched the lessons and the money we had spent on the guy.
This could easily be applied to ANY music teacher, especially the last one. Great video!
Man I wish I could find a teacher like you.
Excellent video, words of wisdom. There are also lousy students too.
#1 Sign That You Have the Wrong Guitar Teacher: He keeps telling you to play the drums.
I DO THAT! Not completely, but I sit my students on the drumset and teach them backbeats in a very quick and superficial way, in order they understand the mechanics of rhythm and next I encourage them to do the same on the 6 strings while I sit at the drum set and we try to play together. Sometimes it works well.
You seem a great teacher. But honestly, my instructors in college.... yeah, they really couldn't do. Very few did. 🎸
Like a week ago I realized my guitar teacher is glossing over the details and not breaking stuff down to me, yk, like, he’d be like „2nd barre moll chord at 7th fret” and expect me to play it perfectly when I didn’t even know how to play a barre chord
Why am I here I'm self taught. Okay I'll be honest, I never got a teacher because I thought they would said to me that I suck and you should play what I like better instead of your stuff. I'm not paying someone to tell me that
I never had a teacher, I taught myself guitar and piano. Probably got some terrible bad habits and finger positions but hey.
My first teacher never taught me anything and asked me what I wanted to learn so he did this for a few months and I just left him. My second teacher never wanted to teach me so he got his daughter to teach me and I didn't enprove at all and my third teacher moved away after 4 or 5 months. So I decided to teach myself and it is working really well.
Maybe I am the only student looking at this positively different. When I was a teenager, my first music teacher kept choosing songs for me to learn without my input. Without wanting to know my favorite genre in music I wanted to learn. So, when I found a different music teacher for other reasons outside music, I felt liberated. Music freedom because they were not only letting me choose the song, they made it where the song could be my own. So from my experience, there’s nothing wrong by it. But that’s just me.
Out of 3 teachers I had, they were all terrible for checking the time constantly, walking around looking for extra cables and tuners and showing off with ah here's another blues riff to discourage you by saying you'll never be able to play it as well as me 🤪
"those who do, teach best!."
I hate teachers who ask what do you wanna learn. I had one like that but they did ask about specific song but that was that all the time. I didn't hate it back then but now I'm like I learnt nothing cause I always wanted to learn songs by the same band (so half my bad but my teacher should've taught me other songs) the band's guitar stuff was super simple, e.g. power chords. I didn't even learn how to play octaves or harmonics so I have had to teach myself.
good job Mike 👍this inspired me that I will probably now make a video on what to look for when trying to find a good teacher (in my opinion anyways 🙂)
my first guitar teacher (2nd grade) did most of these things well. We went through the method book most of the time but he would ask me what i wanted to learn. He taught all of pink floyd’s money to a 4th grader.
Hey dude, I just recently started teaching and this is actually really helpful on both sides. I'm definitely guilty of the "what do want to learn today" and subconscious clock-watching.
I been waiting around on your stream. I hope you stream soon. Take care🙏🏻
The point about asking “What do you want to learn” reminds me of my education classes in college. In general, children feel insecure when parents aren’t in charge and the same dynamic applies to students and teachers. I’m normally a passive person so I have to watch out for that when I’m in a position of responsibility.
What if my instructor does not challenge me enough. I get taught one simple bar of music. As soon as I get home I nail it. What should I do?
Ditch the instructor and teach yourself with RUclips videos and tabs (or by ear if you want to be really good, you seem to have great potential). Play what you want instead of paying for lessons YOU don’t need. Most of what you learn on guitar at any level can be self taught extremely easy these days thanks to the internet. Just search for what you want to learn. Instant free lessons. Now you have more money gear.
The most common reason I hear is "he played too much" and to a lesser extent "he gave me his life story every week" which I find funny because I know a ton of guitarists who will talk your ear off about all these towns they've played and who they've met.
I had a guitar teacher that would ask if theres a song i wanted to learn and when i brought it to him he would just say he doesnt know what the guitar is doing in that song and instead teach me something i didn't want to learn
I have a classical guitar who is very rigid and thinks everybody else is wrong apart from him. I was under Abrsm. I wanted to do Abrsm's fingering because that is what worked best for me, but he wouldn't let me do it. I practiced and practiced his method, even though I was uncomfortable with it and finally said about the exam and he told me I wasn't ready. Yet I kept up with him the whole way, done his fingering and nearly burst into tears throwing the guitar in the gutter. Everybody says I should leave him, but Abrsm guitar teachers are very few and far between. I then got sick of going over the same ground all the time and got more enjoyment learning from books than his lessons. He disses everything ABRSM does including other guitarists who are musically sound with great technique, yet only he is the best. He re arranges all the exam board's fingering which I prefer to his own method. Today he showed me a piece arranged by Sergovia, then someone else and then he arranged from both copies his fingering and wanted me to memorize his! I am really unhappy, the lessons have been a slog and have not even been able to share my love of music with him even. People tell me he's a bully like that guy in Whiplash and tell me for my own sanity I need to get out and go with someone else. I need advice and serious help, what should I do? ="" ( Daniel
Great video, I'd add:
9. Being influenced by management to purchase curriculum, instruments, exams. (Just imagine the motivation lost struggling to pass a children's exam on a mediocre overpriced instrument at age 30, let alone the humiliation of pressured to perform a children's piece at that age.)
10. A teacher that is obviously overworked with too many students, projects to have any attention for you.
11. Someone that is so different from you, that the difference isn't a learning experience, but a struggle in communication and conflict of goals.
12. A teacher looking for a trophy to impress his/her colleagues and embellish their resume. (you mentioned a similar thing in Whiplash, but the difference here is recognizing the prowl for a trophy in character as a minus).
I left guitar teachers after 3/4 years of lessons (been playing almost 10 years now). I was kinda blessed to have a great guitar teacher, always hated when the lesson was over. He took me through the guitar grade books for most of it but sometimes he asked me if I want to do the book or something more fun. He always came up with suggestions as to what he thinks I should attempt and introduced me to new techniques/styles all the time. Technically he wasn't the best guitar player like he couldn't sweep pick, he couldn't shred that well (only mentioning this coz that's the type of stuff I like), he broke his pinky and it hindered his playing a lot but he was still so good at keeping me interested and helping me with basic/intermediate level stuff
RUclips has changed guitar pedagogy forever! Who needs one teacher when you can have 50... I’ll never forget finding your channel about strumming with the egg shaker and it was a huge breakthrough for me. My previous teacher told me “he just always had rhythm in his arm” but never bothered explained it further (glossing over details).
Mine would yell at me. 6mos later. I know at least twice his level. MY PAYBACK
I have the same guitar but it's an epiphone.
Great video! I’m a session guitarist and absolutely love teaching. I’m inspired by learning and progressing, and still take lessons myself occasionally which benefits all aspects of my career.
Great tips man, thanks. Whenever anyone has asked me to teach them lessons I've always shied away from it because the doubt starts from 'what should I teach first?'..or 'maybe I cant play what they want to learn?'..this is invaluable stuff for people like me.
My guitar teachers always turned me away from playing bass when deep down i felt like a bass player. Choosing between the two is still a hard choice i have to make
Damn
You can still play both!
My first teacher’s approach was to ask me what songs I wanted to learn. Then I got a demo on how to play with a little technique but very little explanation. I only lasted 3 months.
yeah same here, and for me i had to sit there through most of my lessons that my mom paid to watch him tab out the song by ear and write it out sloppily with pencil on my notebook, no theory details at all, just tab. I took lessons from this guy for 1 whole year when i was about 14. He did teach me how to do pinch harmonics and eddie van halen basic tapping, so i guess it wasn't terrible but the songs i learned i don't even care about anymore, so learning how to play a full song is a waste of time to me in general now, if it's just for the sake of saying you can play it from the tab, but not know any theory of what it is, then that's not really learning much that is valuable.
My first guitar teacher showed up stoned and went in depth of every action of my muscles bones and tendons while playing war pigs.
Do a "This should be everyones second guitar lesson", or 30th or something for us intermidieate players. Great video!
My first teacher left me to move to Spain because he was getting racial attacks. That was just sad.
I think you also described a few bad doctors that I had to walk out on too! hahahaaha
this is an important video for parents too. I had the complete wrong style of teaching when i started
I'm only beginning my journey as a guitar player, but I do have thousands of hours of instructional design and "behind the podium" instructional work. One thing I can add is that teaching is a skill that's completely separate from the subject being presented. The most amazing guitar player on the planet might be completely incapable of actually teaching in a coherent and productive way while an intermediate player who has very solid fundamental knowledge and skills combined with the ability to organize, adapt, and present that knowledge to an individual student effectively might be the ideal teacher to get you moving in the right direction.
My guitar teacher is guilty of 2 things: wasting my hour and showing off a little... I hope he could improve on those 2 areas... Thanks for the video
I have never taken a guitar lesson but this stuff definitely applies to all types of music lessons.
Thank you for this video, I was just thinking about that and you really helped me.
In my small town, I took one lesson once (that’s it). The instructor did at least five of these in one half hour. He also wasted about five minutes tuning. Plus the kid before me was slow packing up to leave and the kid behind me was peeking in the window at 20 minutes into our 30 minutes, so it wasn’t a concentrated half hour. All he gave me was chords for House Of The Rising Sun. I never went back because that was money I didn’t want to spend that way. I mostly use the internet now.
Nice SG!
My first guitar teacher (1980) was kind of mean. Did not realize it then though. Not entirely. I wanted to learn an easy R.E.O. song. he rolled his eyes back and said they were nothig more than a grade school dance band or something like that. He was always mad at something. He had just gone to see The Who and complained about Pete's windmill was every ten seconds and ruined the experience. One time I had trouble doing a lay down with my middle finger and he exclaimed "well, what's the point then" lol. The music store closed up finally and I moved on.
I went to one guitar lesson in 1997. The dude was a total douchebag. He literally smoked weed the entire time. After that I went home sounded things out and copied off of live concerts on MTV.
I had a drum teacher online when I first started who always wanted me to work on paradiddles and different ways of doing it. I never played a single song and I never learned anything
Wait.... he holds the guitar the whole time but does ever play it..? Lol
I bet his mind is like
*must..... resist*
I told my guitar teacher I wanted to learn Breaking Benjamin. Instead he made me learn chords and classic rock songs. I quit after a few months. When I picked it up the second time, I learned from RUclips and since then I've loved it!
36 yrs old, been teaching Guitar for 17 years now. Well, to make it short: I hate it! I am definitely someone who you could describe as a failed Musician. I got around 60 students at the Moment and 90% of the time it is absolutely agonizing and makes me hate my life.
..... Same here, bro. Well, I had a couple nice exeptions. A 17 year old bassist who played so good. Things like Stevie Wonder "Sir Duke" with such a good taste. Other young guy who played trombone, no idea from bass, one year later we learnt together Jaco Pastorius licks on my fretless bass. Another one that was a catastrophe but I had 3 years patience and he played in a very energetic Gary Moore/Slash style. Maybe 2 or 3 more, the rest are basket cases.
Love your videos. You really help me
Totally agree about my teacher offering to teach just to show off their skills to boost his ego as if he was deprived given the chance to perform on stage! He never praises, never lets me up making me feel small correcting my playing and embarrasses me in front of others. Sometimes you wonder how can they come from the same grace based church.
I have a teacher at school who tells me my that high strings were ringing and that I shouldn't have my fingers out when holding a guitar pick. My guitar teacher now who is a very good teacher got me over ringing strings months before in a about 10 minutes and I didn't have to change the way I hold my hand when picking.
Do you feel that telling a student that something is good when it isn't necessarily the best is problematic? This is in response to your point about how telling a student that something is good enough can be problematic. I can often think of a few things that would make a particular passage in the music that we are working on better, but I believe it is more beneficial to keep moving so that they get a good variety of material in order to keep their interest. What are your thoughts on this? (I teach woodwinds by the way haha)
my guitar teacher taught me songs, but I never heard those songs, didnt know the timing, didnt know anything but the chords or tabs. we also repeated the same thing for almost a year, That was also the reason that I quit.
My first guitar teacher used to hit me whenever I did something wrong, that was when I was ten. Didn't really inspire me to play classical guitar, I only got serious when I was 35.
Woah, that's really shitty
I stopped listening to one teacher online because he didn't give Elvis due credit for a song that he did that was later redone by queen. I don't want any music instructor that don't give Elvis the respect he so deserves as a pioneer in rock and roll.
There is another teacher online I can't stand. He has video titles like "This is why you suck at guitar" or "this is why your cords suck". I don't ant to learn from any one who uses that kind of negativity to teach.
I just want to tell him... this is why your nose is bleeding (because my fist came in contact with it). I suck because I am new. No other reason... because I am a beginner. It's not video gaming where you make fun of noobs. Making fun of beginners is not right.
This last tip that says about the "obligation" of teachers doing other stuff is not 100% accurate because there are thousands of reasons why teachers would be just teaching. It doesn't mean necessarily that a teacher is not good or is giving a bad example.
Wow, great video.
What if your self thought like me,and that scence from wiplash is crazy
Great video Mike! Thank you for the tips! You're cool! :)
He also liked Kenny G. I knew I was screwed. Lol
I teach acting and there are so many parallels between acting and music or teaching music and teaching acting. There's a lot of similar issues like for example teachers that want to show off rather than just stay focused on the student and aim for simplicity in the lessons. The toughest thing to teach an actor is the art of simplicity, especially untrained actors who tend to overthink everything. A teacher who deliberately makes it seem more complex than it needs to be definitely isn't helping and in fact can cripple the student.
My own acting teachers are tough on me but not what I'd call "toxic teachers" like in the movie Whiplash. They're just always pushing me to do better, no matter how good you get there's ALWAYS room for improvement. But there is one teacher (out of several) that I refuse to train with because she's rude, disrespectful and even dishonest with her students. I just don't like her as a person and don't trust her as a teacher and an acting teacher is like god to the students, you don't even know if you're doing it right or wrong until the teacher tells you and that requires a lot of trust.
Those who teach can do but the main reason I love teaching is because it makes me a better student. If you really want to get good or better at something teach it. If you want to improve your grasp of ANY subject, try explaining that subject; using simple language to a person who knows nothing of the subject. I guess it's kind of like martial arts in that way also, once you reach a certain level you teach the lower levels because it helps you strengthen the strong foundation you already have.
Teaching strengthens my foundation for performing and performing strengthens my foundation for teaching. They just go together naturally, like yin and yang. Students understand if I have to cancel a class because I'm on set that day and I EXPECT them to miss a few classes because they're also doing the work and will occasionally be on set. My own teacher had to have a sub come in because she was directing a movie. And her teacher had to stop teaching because he had been cast in "Jurassic Park".
I love this video...I never had a guitar teacher tho
Asking my students what they want to learn is my biggest flaw thanks for pointing it out because I totally thought I was helping students not hurting them
Don't talk about how everything used to be so great when you were younger. You lose your students almost right away.
Sharing exciting things of the past is great, but don't kill your students' excitement about today.